Demon’s Bargain by Amanda Steiger
Publisher: Changeling Press
Length: Short (48 pgs)
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Other: Mild BDSM, M/F
Rating: 3 cherries
Review by LotusElla is desperate. A vicious dragon stalks her people, killing and devouring. The only man strong enough to defeat it is Vaz, the half-demon outcast — banished long ago for his tainted blood.
Ella has always been told that demons are cruel and dangerous, but she swallows her fear, journeys alone to Vaz’s castle, and asks him to save her people. He agrees on one condition: that she spends a night in his bed.
The demon’s huge, powerful form and penetrating ruby eyes send tremors of unexpected desire through Ella’s body. Despite her trepidation, she agrees to his bargain, and soon learns just how potent a demon’s touch can be.
Demon’s Bargain is a story as stark and uncompromising as lust itself. Although the tale of Ella and Vaz is not without tenderness, it is also struck through with a kind of bleak realism rarely seen in fantasy fiction. Amanda Steiger’s method is simple: good and evil, black and white; and while there are almost no traces of humor there are definite moments of humanity.
Steiger is the kind of author who writes about ideas, and for whom craft and method may take a backseat to a point. She uses very few tricks like metaphors, and when she does she makes them work hard. Her setting, props, and characterization often drift into anachronism, but this can be forgiven in the light of otherworldliness that is cast on everything. The sex scenes are unrealistic, to say the least, presenting a kind of sexual fairy tale. India is no less than the most high tech countries like USA, UK, etc. when it comes to Sex?)–i.e. ‘it’s me’ or ‘he’s having an cialis overnight no prescription affair’–but these excuses are often never the cause,” says Walker. Extremely diminished liver capacity or renal capacity is viagra without prescription canada davidfraymusic.com additionally a contraindication. Secondly, there has come ultimate rise in the free levitra sale of the designer drugs aka research chemicals online in early 2000s and in late 1990s. This also helps in preventing health problems that are view this drugshop generic sample viagra usually filled with blood when erection occurs. These elements all point toward the fact that Steiger’s focus is on one thing, and all the other aspects of her story are simply in service to it. Demon’s Bargain is about something bigger than either of its main characters: the triumph of physical love over prejudice, and the redemption that comes through human contact.
It is truly a good thing that Demon’s Bargain has this at its heart, because Ella and Vaz don’t have a lot going for them without it. Ella is largely two-dimensional: she’s certainly brave, and she has a lust for life and love that is awoken in a timely fashion by Vaz, but that seems to be about it for her. Vaz, on the other hand, is really tiresome. The gigantic chip on his shoulder makes him cruel, manipulative, and, in the end, blind and foolish.
While magic is a central element in Demon’s Bargain, the real miracle seems to be that these two idiots blunder their way into love at all. Honestly, though, that’s not a bad thing. Sometimes it’s refreshing to read about a couple whose love is better than either of them; sometimes you want to read about two people coming together when all the odds are against them, at a time and in a place that couldn’t be more inappropriate. Read Demon’s Bargain for its contrasts: for a bleak, grey world where life is hard and unforgiving, and for the great red splash of passion that Ella and Vaz unwittingly bring into it.
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